Daily World News Digest, 26 April 2018

Mexico: army’s role in human rights abuses including extrajudicial killings

In the more than 11 years since Mexico sent tens of thousands of army and navy personnel into the streets to battle the drug cartels, the armed forces have faced repeated accusations of torture, illegal arrests and extrajudicial killings. Between 2012 and 2016, just 3 percent of investigations into crimes allegedly committed by soldiers resulted in convictions, according to an analysis by the think tank Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). https://lat.ms/2Jrk1dR

Swedish archaeologists reveal bodies from 5th Century

Swedish archaeologists have found evidence of a 5th century massacre on the south-eastern island of Oland, second largest Swedish island. In a paper published in the journal Antiquity, the team writes about the 1,500-year-old attack and dozens of corpses that have been found in the walled fort where their bodies were left to decompose. Only three of more than 50 houses containing skeletal remains have so far been excavated. https://bbc.in/2HtDvxQ

Guatemala: Human rights must take precedence in appointment of Attorney General

The efforts of the Attorney General’s Office to fight impunity and protect human rights in Guatemala must continue and even increase, Amnesty International said today. Cases of human rights violations in the armed conflict in Guatemala, including enforced disappearances, sexual violence against women and genocide are expected to be addressed by a new Attorney General who will be appointed by president Jimmy Morales on 17 May. https://bit.ly/2HLBpgv

Pakistan: issue of missing persons being politicized

The National Commission for Enforced Disappearances has stated that some politicians were trying to use the humanitarian crisis of missing persons to their advantage while politicizing the issue by misinforming the Pakhtuns, according to The News. The Commission has clarified that statistics regarding handing over of 4,000 Pakistanis to foreign countries were baseless. https://bit.ly/2FiyGpl

The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted by the Pakistani Supreme Court to investigate Naqeebullah Mehsud’s killing, has found the former Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rao Anwar and his team of police officials guilty of extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud and three others, a private television channel, quoted sources as saying. Rao Anwar was arrested on 21 March when he finally appeared before the Supreme Court after eluding law enforcement agencies for over a month. https://bit.ly/2FhqSEr

Items in the Daily World News Digest are summaries of published reports relevant to the issue of missing persons, compiled by ICMP staff. These items do not necessarily reflect the position of ICMP.

About ICMP

ICMP is a treaty-based international organization with Headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands. Its mandate is to secure the cooperation of governments and others in locating missing persons from conflict, human rights abuses, disasters, organized crime, irregular migration and other causes and to assist them in doing so. It is the only international organization tasked exclusively to work on the issue of missing persons.